running Internet Connection as a service

I know this question has been posted befor, but I can't find it anymore. I would like to know if it's possible to run a DSL connection as a service.

I found a topic with explaination how to use the Scheduled Tasks to run a connection on system start up, but that just doesn't work for me. It takes ages to boot to desktop, and the pc remains unresponsive for 1-2 minutes; after that everything's running smoothly but I still need to start the connection manually.

In scheduled tasks I've used rasdial.exe to initiate the connection with the following syntax:

If I run the task manually, the connection succeeds. But if I reboot the pc, the connection fails (see above). That's the reason that I would like to 'create' a service that starts automatically with windows to connect to internet. The service should be user-independend.

I've unchecked almost everything in msconfig, only 'cftmon' is checked, coz I don't know what that is...

I think the reason for the slow-down is my NIC card trying to get an IP first, and then connect the dsl modem.

My DSL modem is connected to my NIC via straight UTP you see. I think Windows first tries to get an IP for my NIC, and when that fails, it proceeds with dialing the connection and the starts assigning ip's again.

I've tried to specify an ip for my NIC, 10.0.0.1, with subnet 255.0.0.0 but then the connection fails. It hangs on 'Opening WAN-Miniport' I think.

You should already have a static IP if your on cable. All you need to do is find out what your IP is (find out what your IP address is by using ipconfig in a command window). Just to make sure, check what it is 3 times in 3 reboots to make sure you have a static IP.

Once you find out what your IP is setup your NIC so it uses that IP. 10.0.0.1 may not be the right IP for you.

CTFMON is part of ZoneAlarm if i'm not mistaken and perhaps you shouldn't disable EVERYTHING =P Some of them are windows things that may need to be run.

The DSL modem gets an IP from my provider (DHCP), right? It's something like 194.119.xx.xx. That IP is my external ip. Then there is the virtual PPPoE adapter (IP assigned by WinXP), and my NIC card (settings: use DHCP) [they both need an IP to communicate right?]

Every time I connect, windows assigns different 169.??.xx.xx ip adress to my NIC.

Are you telling me to assign one IP of the 169-range to my NIC?
I really don't know how the ip-adresses are distributed while using PPPoE and WAN-Miniport while connecting with DSL... I know how to setup a LAN, but these rules do not seem to apply here... (here = DSL connection)

PS: I disabled only installed items in MSCONFIG, like ICQ, Office10, some app for my webcam, MSN Messanger, all that stuff. And I never used zonealarm.